Yeah, I think how "sketch" the mid-atlantic cities are is mostly overrated by people afraid of black people. The mentally ill on the street are much more concerning safety-wise for me.
But it's pretty easy to avoid. SF seems to have more open air suffering spread throughout.
I never felt unsafe anywhere in San Francisco. That was the least of my concerns while I was in that dystopian dump.
* I watched a man push another man into the street. The man pushed into the street drew a knife on the first man. This was around noon (we were out for lunch), in broad daylight. McAllister & Leavenworth
* I was openly approached to buy what was most likely not legal drugs. (I was noping out of there and trying to position myself between him & my now-finacée as fast as possible, so I couldn't really tell you.) ~10:30p, 8th & Folsom.
* Not technically SF, but a man entered the Caltrain car I was on screaming obscenities, muttering to himself, and making death threats to those in the car simply for looking at him. Sometime in the evening, slightly north of MTV. I believe he was detained at MTV.
Not to say I've not seen other stuff in other cities. But, "never felt unsafe anywhere in SF" … yeah, no. Esp. around Civic center, it's super sketch. (That said, the original "lawless" and "dangerous to enter into" comment is also overboard. SF is a fine city, parts of it are quite nice. But there are parts where you should have your wits about you, too.)
What I'm more used to is growing up in a bad neighborhood in Chicago in the 90s where I actually felt unsafe because the odds of getting robbed at gunpoint or getting beat up were very high. "Walking around" meant avoiding specific areas, avoiding alleyways, getting away from groups, not traveling alone, not having anything worth more than a dozen dollars on me or any clothing worth more than that, etc.
But yes, I was in the Tenderloin at 1 am on a weekday and felt unsafe and was followed by some people saying they would kill me. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯